Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Interview - Children of the Fifth Sun by Gareth Worthington - Partners in Crime Blog Tours

Welcome to my stop on the Children of the Fifth Sun by Gareth Worthington blog tour, sponsored by Partners in Crime Virtual Tours. Learn a bit about the book, get some inside info in my interview with the author and don't forget to enter the #Giveaway too.Enjoy!

Synopsis:

Thousands of years ago, an ancient species from the sea saved humanity; now a cocky, free-diving photographer tortured by his past is the unlikely hero who must save the last of their kind from a global race between nations to control the creature’s power.

IN ALMOST EVERY BELIEF SYSTEM ON EARTH, there exists a single unifying mythos: thousands of years ago a great flood devastated the Earth’s inhabitants. From the ruins of this cataclysm, a race of beings emerged from the sea bestowing knowledge and culture upon humanity, saving us from our selfish drive toward extinction. Some say this race were “ancient aliens” who came to assist our evolution. But what if they weren’t alien at all? What if they evolved right here on Earth, alongside humans . . . and they are still here? And, what if the World’s governments already know?
Kelly Graham is a narcissistic, self-assured, freelance photographer specializing in underwater assignments. While on a project in the Amazon with his best friend, Chris D'Souza, a mysterious and beautiful government official, Freya Nilsson, enters Kelly’s life and turns it upside down. Her simple request to retrieve a strange object from deep underwater puts him in the middle of an international conspiracy. A conspiracy that threatens to change the course of human history.

Read an excerpt:

Excerpt | CHILDREN OF THE FIFTH SUN by Gareth Worthington

Freya elegantly glided in front of Kelly, breaking his train of thought. Her slender body slid through the water with grace and ease. She must have sensed his stare, because she turned her head to face him and gave a huge, regulator-filled grin. Kelly stifled a laugh.

He turned back to his equipment to check their depth—sixty-five feet. They were at the sea floor. It wasn’t very deep, but this was where it was supposed to be. He motioned his right arm to get Freya’s attention. He then signaled for her to look down and keep her eyes open. She gave the okay sign.

As they swam a little further, the structure came into sight just as Alexandro’s information had indicated. A large horseshoe-shaped wall, three-feet thick and six-feet tall, spanned more than two-hundred-fifty feet in diameter. Other than that, it was unimpressive—just an old stone wall. Surely, if a team had already been down here, they would have found an orb? Kelly pulled himself along the bottom, sifting through the sand, picking up each stone he came across. He shook his head and looked across at Freya. She seemed to be having similar poor luck, pointlessly rummaging through silt and mud. He swam across to her and pointed in front, indicating his intent to look on ahead. She nodded and watched as he flicked his fins, disappearing into a haze of ocean and sand particles.

Freya returned to her treasure hunt. All she found were rocks and the odd tin or soft drink can. Ugh, it was disgusting. Even the ocean wasn’t safe from humanity. She reached the outer edge of the stone wall and swam along, keeping close to it. Her gloved fingers prodded into each crack and crevice, not that she could feel anything through the thick material. Her mask was beginning to fill with water. She thought about Kelly’s instruction and began the mask clearing procedure.

Pressing the palm of her right hand against the top of her mask so the bottom released a few millimeters from her face, she exhaled hard through her nose, forcing the water out. A stream of bubbles crashed about her head in a white-water curtain. As it cleared, a small metallic glint protruding from beneath one of the huge stone bricks caught her eye. She clawed her way to it, then started digging in the sand. The fine silt clouded up around her, obscuring her view. Using only her limited sense of touch, Freya kept tunneling under the wall. The familiar shape of a box began to form under her fingers. She dug beneath until she could grip the box with both hands. Tugging hard, she released the cuboid object from its hold in the silt. The billow of sand cleared.

She stared at her treasure. It was a small chest, copper-colored with a green oxidized coating on its surface. She smiled. Could this be it? Could there be an orb inside? The excitement power through her. She raised her head to see if Kelly was nearby, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She swam in a circle. The inability to hear or feel anything was unnerving. She only had the power of sight and that was restricted to a straight line in front of her for one hundred fifty feet or so.

The light above her dimmed. Freya frowned and raised her head to investigate. Above her, the huge shadow of a shark glided by. She knew her mask would magnify any object, but still, the thing looked huge. Its blunt snout and thick body looked positively primeval—the perfect predator. Panic set in.

Damn, where was Kelly? Clutching her treasure, Freya lowered her head. She searched for the knife strapped to her right calf. Before she could find it, her gaze was met by the cold stare of reptilian eyes. A sea snake was inches from her face, rippling its body to hold its position. Its eyes were fixed on hers. She froze, holding her breath. Freya shifted her focus from the uncomfortably close predator to the shadow lurking behind it. Oh God. The shark?

It was Kelly. A brief feeling of relief washed over her, but it was snatched away by the searing pain of fangs plunging into her left hand. Freya gargled a scream through her regulator and dropped the box, letting it fall to the sea floor. The snake shot off into murk as Kelly tore through the water toward her. Her breathing slowed and her limbs grew heavy. Her eyelids slid closed. She blinked before her eyes closed one last time.

Gareth Hi!
Welcome to The Reading Frenzy. Your new novel sounds amazing. Tell my
readers and I a bit about it please.

Children of the
Fifth Sun is an action adventure story with a dash of science fiction thrown
in. Think Indiana Jones meets the Abyss!

The main premise
is in the late 1940s, Chinese explorers found the frozen corpse of a strange
animal in Siberia. The US government stole it and for more than 60 years have
been conducting experiments. In the last few years, they managed to clone it
and create a live specimen.

The animal, known
as K’in, is believed to be part of a race of beings that evolved alongside
humans, even giving our kind science, math, and civility. But many millennia
ago, we killed them all.

Now, there is a
covert war between various governments, and even cults, who want to harness the
intelligence/power K’in is believed to have locked inside.

When a mission
goes wrong in the South China sea, the US government is forced to recruit a
civilian to help. This civilian, Kelly Graham, will change everything – in ways
no one could have guessed.

The story has two
distinct, but intertwined, threads for me. At the macro level, it is an
action-packed thriller that keeps readers on the edge of their seat. There is
lots of military action, multiple locations across the globe, and an insight
into some of the world’s oldest cults.

At the micro
level, it’s a story about a man, Kelly Graham, who has suffered tragic loss and
has made the conscious decision to cut himself off emotionally from the world.
He even goes as far as to make himself downright unlikeable – at least at
first. Through the story, he is challenged to open himself to feelings he’d
long since buried. When writing this, I aimed to consider why all humans have a
hole inside that we believe only another can fill – and what it does to us,
when we lose the thing that made us whole.

It’s one hundred
and forty thousand words – because there is a lot of story! I hope that readers
will think I’ve done the topics justice.

Is
this a stand-alone or the first in a series?

It’s actually the
first in a trilogy! I am writing the second novel, Children of the Fifth Sun:
Echelon, right now. The third and final installment, Children of the Fifth Sun:
Rubicon, is simmering somewhere in the back of my head.

Honestly, of all
the works I will ever write, Children of the Fifth Sun is an extremely personal
journey for me. Both as a writer – I’ll apply all the things I’ve l learned to
books 2 and 3 – but also emotionally. Each book represents a change in my own
evolution. I have two young children now and that change in mindset feeds
directly into book 2. People who know me, see it clearly.

You call
Children of the Fifth Sun a “Science Faction” novel. Explain please.

So this term was
thought up by my friend Marie D. Jones, who is best known for her non-fiction
work on conspiracy theories and ancient aliens. It just kind of stuck.

The reason she
called it that, is because I like everything I write to have as much realism as
possible. So, I combine facts, theories, hypotheses, and conspiracies so that
the reader is never sure if its fiction or not.

For example, the
main premise regarding K’in is based on a real theory of alternate historians
such as Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval. In every belief system on Earth,
there is a myth handed down through generations that a great flood destroyed
most of the planet. After the flood came a race of knowledge bringers who gave
humanity the tools and intellect to be what we are today. The myths also say we
killed them off.

The research
often described this race as pale men with beards who came from the sea. The
alternate historians conclude there is an undiscovered race of humans who were
very advanced at that time (think Atlantis). Others suggest the race may be
alien.

When I looked at
the research, I noted that most of the translations of the old stories were by
those who had conquered those lands, and that the words may have been misused.
For instance, in South America, the conquistadors used the word beard – when in
fact the original drawings and carvings of the knowledge bringers would suggest
they were feathered.

In Children of
the Fifth Sun, the knowledge bringers are not human – but another species
altogether. You can see all the research at:www.childrenofthefifthsun.com

You also
mention that it’s been optioned for film/TV.

I think this
would make a fabulous movie/TV series.

Has there
been any finalization there yet?

It’s very
exciting. Many readers have been nice enough to say they think it would make a
great movie. Vesuvian Entertainment also thought so and are developing the
project to help make the transition from book to the screen! I wrote the book
with exactly this in mind, including a soundtrack I played while writing – so I
hope it works out.

Gareth what
an impressive and interesting bio you have.

Did the
scientist awaken your inner author, if not could you please share with my
readers your road to authordom?

I actually
started writing when I was fourteen or fifteen. Children of the Fifth Sun
started as a short story I wrote at school. My teacher asked if I had considered
writing books and I guess it stuck in my head. I spent my summers writing short
stories, but honestly fell out of practice until I was 29! Then one day, after
reading Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock, a non-fiction, alternate
history book, a story started to form in my mind.

From there, I
just kept writing and love to combine my scientific brain with fiction. I have
another, non-related, science faction duology in the works. I wrote it with a
friend I made on Goodreads, Stu Jones. The first book is called It Takes Death to Reach a Star, and will be published by Vesuvian Books in 2018. We’re very excited.
There is a website we created with all the research and even artwork by Eric
Ninaltowski who illustrates for MARVEL.

I see in your
photo album you made a trip to the States some time back. Do you plan on coming
back on tour for this book?

I was actually in
the States to see my co-author Stu Jones – he lives in Alabama. I travel for my
day job a lot and am in the states quite frequently. If my book did well, I
would be totally open to a book tour there!

Thank you so
much for answering my questions.

Good luck
with the new novel!

More about Gareth Worthington:

Gareth Worthington holds a degree in marine biology, a PhD in endocrinology, and currently educates the World's doctors on new cancer therapies. Gareth has hand tagged sharks in California; won honorable mention at the New York Book Festival 2012 and 2013 for his writing; and trained in various martial arts, including Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai, and MMA at the EVOLVE MMA gym in Singapore and Phoenix KampfSport Switzerland. Born in Plymouth UK, Worthington currently resides outside of Zurich, Switzerland.
Visit Gareth Online:
WebsiteTwitterFacebookGoodreads

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Giveaway

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Providence Book Promotions for Gareth Worthington and GH Literary. There will be 1 winner of one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card AND 3 winners of one (1) eBook copy of CHILDREN OF THE FIFTH SUN by Gareth Worthington. The giveaway begins on July 24th and runs through September 27th, 2017.
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